Lung Cancer: Joyce's Survivor Story
This lung cancer diagnosis at a glance
- Sex
- Female
- Treatment
- surgery
- Outcome
- Care Ongoing / Survivorship
Treatment course, step by step
- Removal of the lower lobe of the right lung for early-stage lung cancer.
What happened, in summary
Joyce Chisar was 55 and training hard for a marathon when hip pain forced her to walk at mile 20. A few weeks later, she could run only about 100 feet before becoming short of breath and feeling uncomfortably full. A separate workup for severe abdominal cramps found a large ovarian cyst. Surgery in November removed her uterus and both ovaries, and testing confirmed stage 1 ovarian cancer.
While Joyce was receiving precautionary chemotherapy, follow-up imaging found a spot in her right lung. It proved to be a second, unrelated primary lung cancer. The lung cancer was also caught at an early stage. Because Joyce was a dedicated runner, she worried about how surgery would affect her breathing. In January, surgeons removed the lower lobe of her right lung. Her overall care for the two cancers also included radiation and continuing chemotherapy.
Joyce recovered well enough to return to work and run the Stand Up To Cancer 5K in August. She hoped to average 11-minute miles but finished at about 10 minutes per mile. Friends, family and coworkers supported her throughout treatment, and she remained grateful that both cancers had been found early enough to treat.
Where this story comes from
This is a lay summary of an account first published by Cleveland Clinic. Read the original in full
These are lay summaries of published cancer stories, for information only. No two cancers behave the same way, and nothing here predicts your own diagnosis or replaces advice from your oncology team.